weekend in pictures

30 Aug 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG, cape town, lifestyle, weekend in pictures, 7 Comments

Guys, I really dunno about my Friday wishes post… think I was having a ‘tough time‘. I mean the sloths and the snowdawgy are okay but the rest… wow… just want you to know that I’m better now. Anyway so RAINY saturday. Sunny Sunday. Busy in all kinds of ways.

Went to Canal Walk. After 15 minutes, we were basically suicidal, and fled outside to take in gulps of fresh air. There was a trolley in the fountain, in the rain. Seconds from slitting our wrists, we got Vida and fled the mall entirely, but not without being first bumped, jostled and *touched* by freaks who have no concept of personal space. What is it with people who shop at Canal Walk not having a clue about personal space? Seriously? Anyone else find this to be true, or is it just me?

Canal Walk. Doesn't this MAKE you want to die?

Weekend started on brighter note with Anna’s Farewell party. We went to Sidewalk Cafe in Vredehoek. Ordered the Caesar Salad. Rich, but in a good way.

Anna & Jenny

Jenny & Mark

Ryan & Rikus

Went to Cassis for Macarons. Got distracted and came out with macarons +.

oh nom

Had coffee at Montebello in the trees. Wore my new Vintage-inspired Chanel shades which have the cutest daisy detail on the arms (click to see) and amazing enamel detail in the frames too. I adore these! Definitely keepers.

Vintage-inspired Chanels. We like.

TC in the Chanels. Pretty!

Discovered a great sushi special on Kloof Street at Best of Asia, opposite the Spar. Basically it’s order a plate of one colour, get a plate of the same colour free. Great sushi, and they serve you a beautiful fruit dessert after too! (these things make all the difference)

How was your weekend?

massage club. what a great idea.

24 Aug 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG recommends, cape town, lifestyle, non-tourist attractions, sport, 0 Comments

en masse massage studio - lots of screens and mirrors and beds

As a big fan of friendly human contact – cuddles, hugs, massages, gentle back patting … I’m there – I was THRILLED at being invited to experience an interesting concept, namely MASSAGE CLUB. This is how it works:

You join enmasse for either R550 per month or R900 per month.

For the former you get 2 x 1 hour massages a month, and the latter you get 4 x 1 hour massages a month. Is that not a brilliant idea? Sign me up Scottie!  Click here to view their menu and see what’s available. You can also just get once-off massages from R350 for 1 hour. Great for a no-frills no-fuss lunchtime massage quickie.

Anyway, I had the 1-hour Thai Massage. I’ve never had a Thai Massage before, and it’s quite interactive. It’s a mixture of stretching, pressure point pressing and massage, and I really, really loved it. Am usually stiff due to being a bit OCD about running and exercise so this took the relief of a normal massage and made it amazing with the stretching vibe, and the pressure points – thought you may scoff – really hurt! And it works. Felt totally centred and light.

Where you have your massage

Thai Massage is different in that there are no oils involved – you walk in, they give you a white shirt and wrap pants, you get changed and the whole thing is done on a mattress on the floor. And while i LOVE oils, they can be impractical if you just want a quick massage in the middle of the day, which is where Thai Massage comes into its own.

Teas. Lots of them.

They also have a ridiculously huge collection of delicious teas, so once you’ve had your massage you can chill and drink a cup of something soothing and yummy. Enmasse is centrally located in Gardens in Mill Street. Click here to make a booking.

PS Ladies - guys will love this place. They won’t call it ‘gay’. Treat your man xx

So glad those yucky towers are gone.

23 Aug 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in a good cause, cape town, lifestyle, south africa, 3 Comments

Quite enjoyed this ad from the City of Cape Town on how Cape Town would look if we don’t slow down on our endless energy consumption. Turn off something somewhere right now. You’ll be doing good by keeping our city pretty.

Jack Daniel’s Tik Tok Twitter Tasting

23 Aug 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in BFFs, CTG, cape town, characters, drink, girl stuff, hilarious, lifestyle, south africa, whisky, 1 Comments

So CTG, PD and LA hit up CTG HQ the other night to take part in a Jack Daniel’s Twitter Tasting. If you’re confused, don’t be: basically Jack Daniel’s sent us a bunch of whisky - their Single Barrel, their Gentleman’s Jack and good old Jack Daniel’s No. 7 - and we got to tasting it while tweeting about it.

The thing about twitter tastings is that they don’t take much effort. So we had all this whisky and CTG’s iPod, which is when we remembered that Kei$ha sings about Jack Daniel’s in her song Tik Tok:

“Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy
Grab my glasses, I’m out the door, I’m gonna hit this city
Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack
‘Cause when I leave for the night, I ain’t coming back..”

So we did what any other self-respecting CTGs would do. We decided to dress up like Kei$ha and make a video!!! Uh huh! Please enjoy the ‘tasting notes’ you’ll find spread out amongst the dancing.

Thanks Jack Daniel’s, that was quite fun. Even though we felt NOTHING like P Diddy upon waking up the next morning…

xxCTG, PD & LA

New fav sushi spot: Nobu at One&Only Cape Town

23 Aug 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG recommends, cape town, drink, food, hotels, lifestyle, sushi club, 0 Comments

Am typically Capetonian in that am a total creature of habit who gets very stressed out when I can’t get MY table in Beluga and MY heater at Sevruga and if I can’t eat ALL the crying rolls I order at Minato (like, if you want crying rolls, will you just order crying rolls and not eat mine okay? cool) and also I don’t really trust any sushi that doesn’t come from either Beluga or Sevruga or Minato’s and DESPITE all the time I spend at One&Only Cape Town I have not actually eaten the sushi at Nobu yet. Shocking, I know. So Saturday was time to ‘live on the edge’, ‘take a risk’ and try something new. Since Nobu is Paris Hilton’s second home we reckoned it couldn’t be that bad could it?

You can watch the chefs making the sushi upfront

Nobu at One&Only Cape Town

First impression would be the space – LOVE that you sit in intimate booths and LOVE the double triple volume that makes it so spacious and honestly, you come to Nobu because their service is so incredible you end up having a collaborative eating experience rather than a meal. After lengthy chats with the hostess we settled on a selection of their menu’s finest rather than ordering specific dishes, with a focus on white fish – not something we’ve eaten very much of.

A selection of whitefish sashimi. Ask them what they have in - I could eat this all night. I basically did.

Softshell Crab roll - stop right here because I CANNOT recommend these enough! Softshell crab is my sushi future!

Sushi salads usually disappoint me but the Lobster Salad with Spicy Lemon Dressing was completely OUT OF THIS WORLD.

Lobster salad with spicy lemon dressing

We were served a really delicious 10-year old Saki with the Lobster salad and it was yummy. Very clean and fruity with banana flavours. Ask for it when you go – it’s the Hokusetsu Ongakushu Semi-dry 10-year old.

Dessert finished us. Passion fruit mousse jelly thing, chocolate fondant (best dessert on the menu IMHO), green tea ice cream, kelpers & pineappple sorbet (the other best dessert on the menu), malva pudding and a coffee mousse thing which was also delicious.

After all this eating, Priscilla and I really should have gone home. But we didn't. We did something else instead, which I'm not sure about blogging yet. Oh Cape Town... you offer 2 girls too much on a Saturday night...

A story for another time...

A huge thanks to Nobu for being so utterly gracious in hosting CTG. The service was truly out of this world! And you absolutely have opened my mind to whitefish. It is the way forward! Salmon seems so… pink in comparison! Click here to make yourself a booking at Nobu. You won’t regret it. You may also never eat sushi anywhere else, which could be inconvenient but well, the risk is yours to take.

xxCTG

pretty eyes!

18 Aug 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG recommends, cape town, cosmetics, fashion, girl stuff, lifestyle, 3 Comments

The lovely Estee Lauder ladies sent me these pics from our 3 Steps to Beautiful Eyes makeup session. Ladies this was so much fun and we walked away feeling all pretty. Strutting. Like ponies. Hoofs up. Clop clop clop. Trying to figure out how to make this part of my daily routine somehow.

Eyeshadow being applied - colours being the Vintage Violet and Roseberry Duo, liner is Jet Black Auto and Mascara is Turbo Lash in Black.

Nearly there, looking good so far. Have discovered a new foundation - the Lauder Nutritious in Intensity 2. I am SO over matt foundation - matt is sooo granny! - and Nutritious gives you this lovely, dewy, just-had-a-breathy-makeout-session-with-my-exotic-lover glow.

Finishing touches - Blusher in Nude Nuance, a touch of Bronzer in Soft Shimmer and lips in Strong Coffee.

The result: Pretty Eyes! :)

Thank you so much to Lulu and Toughieeda for having us! And for helping  CTG with colour. Am normally scared of colour when it comes to makeup and tend to stick to browns and blue greys on my eyes. Feel free now! Free to use purple too! :) (Was super inspired by Lulu who was wearing the most amazing shade of BRIGHT purple!)

Lulu and me :) Lulu is so glam! She is super inspiring!

Head over to an Estee Lauder counter if you want Pretty Eyes too – tell them CTG sent you :)

one night in the Dirkie Sanchez Suite

16 Aug 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in BFFs, CTG recommends, Design, advertising, cape town, hilarious, hotels, lifestyle, music video, south africa, 1 Comments

CTG was invited to go out to Elgin to experience the Old Mac Daddy Luxury Trailer Park Hotel, cousin to the Grand Daddy Hotel on Long Street, prior to its opening. This was a wild experience, let me tell you. Firstly, CTG and PD took their sweet time heading out into the country, getting our makeup done at Estee Lauder first, dawdling around Vida and then, only then hitting the N2 out to Elgin. We were then informed that we were holding up the boat ride. Oh Lord! Only us. So we then spent 4 billion hours driving around trying to find the rest of the boating party, which we eventually did, which eventually made it worth it.

You can get a boatride at nearby Mofam farm for only R70 - very serene and lovely.

Sunset from the boat.

After the boat ride we then drove another 4 billion kms back to the hotel, which is designed like an enormous barn, with overturned buckets as lights, and all the staff wear Old McDonald checker shirts! Ah, it’s lovely to look at.

Barn vibes in the main dining room

But the driving left us feeling like this, I won’t lie. As did the denial of my request for a cappuccino:

Taken right after it was revealed to CTG that Old Mac Daddy does not serve cappuccinos, or any filter coffee of any kind at all. Bleak.

I mean, what kind of a hotel doesn't serve FILTER COFFEE? An unfinished one apparently. We were assured that cappuccino machines were arriving the very next day.Which we have chosen to believe.

The food was at least delicious. We were served bobotie with banana, custard, coriander, basmati, almonds, green beans and chutney, which perked us up bigtime. Compliments to Siya the chef – he really did outdo himself. I could have eaten 2 servings, to deal with the emotional trauma of being denied cappuccino.

We then retired to our room – the specially requested Dirkie Sanchez Suite, whose development I have been following over at this blog since they started building the Old Mac Daddy. And this is when our evening really started. So inspired were we by this incredible take on hotel decor – the whole room is them Mexican Luchadore with the bed being a wrestling ring! - that PD and I decided to make a video, and spent the rest of the night doing just that. Please enjoy the fruits of our ass-shaking to our get-up-and-dance track of the moment, Beyonce’s Girl Anthem Why Don’t You Love Me:

The making of this was too much fun. We even took a break at midnight, and, starving, ventured down to the hotel to see if we could get a snack. Not only did we get a snack, but owner Jody totally went completely out of his way and opened his kitchen to make up toasted sandwiches, tea, rusks, milk tart and koeksisters. Unreal! That more than made up for the cappuccino debacle. So thanks for that Jody. And thanks for having us! Guys, Elgin is beautiful, and the Dirkie Sanchez Suite has a view of the whole valley. Go spend a night there. They should have cappuccino machines by now.  And take a camera.

BUT WAIT. Hidden in the back cupboard of the Dirkie Sanchez Suite is a pair of luchadore costumes. You know, Mexican Wrestler Nacho Libre vibe. We discovered these as we were leaving so took a few quick snaps but why don’t you use them in your video?

xxCTG & PD

PS video footnotes: CTG & PD wear sundresses R80,00 each by Mr Price, shades Roberto Cavalli, Ray Ban and Armani by Sunglass Hut, POA, makeup by Estee Lauder POA. Contact CTG for more specifics editor@capetowngirl.com

holiday in pictures

16 Aug 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in BFFs, CTG, cape town, girl stuff, holiday, hotels, lifestyle, south africa, 0 Comments

Had a good and lovely little mini break! And the weather played summer-summer too! Glorious. Think drinking Vida and swinging with the kiddies on the promenade

Trying on engagement rings with BFF (bridesmaid duties! so much fun!)

Mmmmm pretty sparkly stones

Lots of running, offset by eating LOTS AND LOTS of macarons! These ones are from Cassis. Vanilla and Pistachio are my two favourite flavours by far.

Eating LOTS AND LOTS of sushi. Frances pictured here at Sevruga

Picked up a pair of very unique Roberto Cavalli’s from Sunglass Hut at the Waterfront. Because WHAT is summer without a pair of statement shades? It’s a joke, that’s what.

Listened to David Bowie vinyls… on repeat…

“Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he’ll ever know
He’s in the best selling show..”

Went to watch Farryl Purkiss at &Union. Super chilled, super prego rolls.

Got a Flash for my Diana camera and took lots and lots of photos, still to be developed. This pic is taken using my iPhone and the Diana flash - you can literally track the flash as it moves. Quite a mission to take pics like this but still lots of fun, especially with all those pretty colour gels.

We got our makeup done by the lovely ladies at Estee Lauder. Ladies, have you tried the Advanced Repair Eye Cream? This is not a gratuitous product punt. As a girl who loves her eye makeup (like, if I’m going to lounge around in bed in lingerie all day, I’ll get up, put on makeup, and then get back into bed and lounge), I can honestly say that the Lauder eye cream product is amazing. I feel a whole lot less bad plastering on panda paint now that eyes are receiving some form of moisturising redemption.

We also spent a night at the Old Mac Daddy Luxury Trailer Park in Elgin, but that’s a whole other post, soon to follow…

Miss u holiday. You were awesome.

a visit to the gallery

16 Aug 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG recommends, art, cape town, holiday, lifestyle, south africa, 0 Comments

Photo by Dave Southwood - click the image to see more

LOVE being on holiday because it allows you to do things like meander around the inner city and stroll into the National Gallery if the fancy takes you. I did such a thing at some point last week and discovered a really great exhibition called From Pierneef to Gugulective and it’s such a great spread of work – please please please go take a look, it’ll be a worthy hour or so.

Lisa Brice - one of CTG's fav SA artists

Can't remember the artist here but this bro appears in my dreams from time to time.

There’s nothing like a well-groomed man in a suit.

05 Aug 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in cape town, cosmetics, guys stuff, lifestyle, 5 Comments

Oooh look, an excuse to post a pic of Alexander Skaarsgard. Y'alls, who is cooler: Eric from True Blood, or Dr Dre?

Nothing. In fact a well-groomed man has been known to enjoy all kinds of advantages with CTG. Advantages like, CTG will speak to a well-groomed man. CTG will eat dinner with a well-groomed man. CTG will share her macarons with a well-groomed man. You get the idea. Anyway a well-groomed man has more than a sharp razor and some clippers. A well-groomed man has a barber. Yes, a barber. No, not a Babar.

But a barber. Something like Barnet Fair, which you’ll find here on facebook, and at 98 Bree Street in real life. I just had to post some pics of this place – it’s awesome. So old school.

How utterly gorgeous is Barnet Fair? If I were a man I’d add this to my morning repertoire, along with my daily Vida e Caffe.